Violent conflict upends and polarizes societies, disrupting social structures and gender roles.
Projects and policies intended to assist communities that are fragile or affected by violence are more successful if they consider conflict’s different effects on men, women, boys, and girls.
Approaches to conflict resolution that account for gender issues and include a broader array of society reduce gender-based violence, enhance gender equality, defuse conflict, and lead to more sustainable peace.

In many countries, elections are a flashpoint for violence. Far too often, programs designed to prevent election violence are based on intuition instead of evidence, or efforts concentrate solely on logistical or technical support on election day. When prevention efforts fail and violence erupts, officials may respond with a counter-productive crackdown, citizens lose trust in the ability of government and the rule of law to protect them, and years of development efforts are reversed.

Based on a study conducted in the Pakistani town of Haripur that investigated children’s attitudes toward identity, this Peace Brief finds that identity-based divides are in fact not the primary drivers of conflict at the community level, but notes the continuing salience of gender identity, which produces differing social expectations and differing understandings of conflict resolution roles.

A society defined by patriarchal norms and structural inequalities keeps women and girls on the margins of the society and hinders women’s participation in public and political spheres. Yet women’s participation in decisions related to peace and security in the country is essential to peacebuilding and postconflict reconstruction. This brief examines the challenges in implementing the women, peace, and security framework in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s disputes with neighboring India and Afghanistan periodically erupt in violence. Domestic attacks involving disparate terrorist and insurgent groups, and counter-offensives by Pakistan’s military, have killed tens of thousands of Pakistanis over a decade and forced nearly 1.5 million from their homes. Sectarian violence against minorities is fueled by a narrow vision for Pakistan’s national identity that has been promoted by political movements and state institutions.

Although reports indicate an improvement in its overall security, Balochistan remains the most fragile province in contemporary Pakistan. This brief examines both the efficacy and motivations behind the state’s recent actions to end persistent conflict in the province.

The December 2014 terrorist attack in Peshawar that killed 132 schoolchildren forced Pakistan to acknowledge the extent of its ongoing problem with radical Islamist militancy. Islamabad, however, has yet to implement a comprehensive deradicalization strategy. In January 2015, it took a formal step in this direction with its twenty-point National Action Plan in response to the Peshawar attack—a step, but only a first step. If deradicalization is to meet with any success in Pakistan, the national narrative itself needs to change.

Overcoming Pakistan's many challenges, and meeting the development needs of its people, requires working through the institutions of Pakistani governance if sustainable impacts are to be achieved. U.S. aid, if offered consistently and in support of systemic institutional reform, can have a valuable catalytic role to assist and incentivize these efforts.

akVotes, an experimental project run by a Pakistani NGO and supported by USIP, brought social media platforms together with a network of reporters to track violence during Pakistan’s 2013 elections. The experience offers lessons for the future use of social media to publicize conflicts and violence during elections and other major events.

Summary

PakVotes, a pilot project supported by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), used social media platforms and a network of reporters located in areas outside of major cities in Pakistan to track violence during the 2013 elections.

Over the past decade, violence has become endemic in many parts of Pakistan. This report examines the trajectory of violence and the range of conflicts in six troubled regions. The authors conclude that if existing socioeconomic conditions persist and the state continues to fail to deliver public services, justice, and security, Pakistan could face further escalation of violence and lawlessness.

Pakistan, a semiarid region and a primarily agricultural economy, is facing declining water availability and quality, growing water pollution, and overall environmental insecurity. This situation, coupled with institutional, operational, and governance failures, is fostering domestic discord.

Andrew Robertson is a senior program officer in the Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). Robertson was previously a director at the Corporate Executive Board, a consultant for FSI, Inc. and a research engineer for the Nissan Motor Company. He holds a PhD in the history of science from Harvard University and an ME in computer and electrical engineering from Dartmouth College.

Seven women from Pakistan’s police forces explored the obstacles they have in common with their American counterparts and those that set them apart, such as the debate over all-female police stations in some parts of the country, during a visit to USIP in December The session was part of a week-long study tour organized by the U.S. State Department that included time with American police forces in a search for lessons they can apply in their own work.

The deaths of more than 150 Shiites in the past four weeks have again set off religious sectarian violence in Pakistan. Dozens of Shiite mosques and neighborhoods and Shiite religious processions in the cities of Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Baluchistan were targeted by Tareek-e Taliban Pakistan, aka the “Pakistan Taliban,” and by the extremist group Lashkar-e Jhangvi.